Web of the Clans

[Abidusray]

This post is void. Due to errors on my part, this post is incorrect. It has been replaced with this one.

"And why," Thresher began, hanging fingers twitching above the dirt. "would I be thankful?" His hand shot forwards and his bent legs straightened as he scooped up his gun, launching himself forwards, towards the spider machine. He landed in front of it, on his side, and slid underneath it, a cloud of dust rising around him.

"Son of a *JUMPING PEPPERS!*!," he screamed, delivering a kick to one of the metal legs. He aimed his weapon at the underbelly of the alien, and pulled the trigger three times, sending three lead slugs towards his adversary.

[Cirrial]

[ Incoming hostile at oh no no no no dodge DODGE- ]

There isn't time there isn't time-

The exobody, calmly firing more shards of metal towards Shaaiikliin, takes a direct hit from the planar blaster. The exobody's left arm/gausser cannon soaks up most of the force.

The combination of electromagnetic coils struggling to keep propelling so many shards for such a sustained time, and strange planar energies unenvisioned during the construction of said coils, leads to a rather unfavourable outcome.

[ TO THE RIGHT! LEFT CANNON CRITICAL! ]

The exobody fires thrusters on its left leg, pushing it onto its side. The arm cannon is held up in the air as far away from the exobody as it possibly can be. It then explodes with a loud bang and thick pouring black smoke. The side of the exobody takes damage also, a dark black scorch mark on the side of the exobody, and sharp metal shards cascade out of the useless cannon barrel.

Naine squeaks and whistles involuntarily, somewhat alarmed. Exobody malfunctions were something he dealt with on what seemed to be a daily basis, but they tended to be somewhat smaller scale.

Goldie, what the hell just happ-

[ No time! Hostile enclosing! ]

While Naine takes a few valuable seconds to regain his faculties, the AI Goldie pushes the exobody back on its feet by engaging the thrusters on the right leg, and varying them in fine increments over a time scale of microseconds.

The perfectly functional right arm cannon moves forwards and fires at Shaaiikliin's predicted path, while the exobody's legs start to pick up speed and run backwards.

[ Here, you take the gun, I'll pilot this thing. ]

Right.

The exobody barely manages to avoid buildings and random litter on the ground. Luckily, most civilians had already cleared off. Even Psychotopian citizens had a sense of self-preservation, after all.

[Dr. Gustaf Brackman]

Brackman scoffed as the words reached his ship, having expected such an answer, though also noted that his own answer wouldn't be much different were he in their position. Just, he would omit the 'devouring you' part.

"Oh yes...So predictable."
"Doctor Brackman," the AI stated, "the enemy vessel has launched ten small craft against us."
"Equally predictable."
The doctor sat down in his command chair and leaned back casually, contemplating his next move for a moment. Thoughts and plans buzzed through his head faster than a normal human brain could ever achieve, and it took him only a few seconds to decide on what action to take. He focused his holographic display on the Space Station, and noticed the Clan pod attempting to dock.

"I do believe a little deception is in order." He lifted a finger and placed it on the transmit button on his console, communicating to the CSS his massive spacecraft hovered over,
"CSS, as you are no doubt aware, a large alien craft has entered orbit around Blackstar, and I'm not talking about my own. Even now, they have sent landing craft to all corners of the planet and at this very moment are staging an invasion. The vessel trying to dock with you is hostile. Do not listen to whatever they have told you. I've dealt with this species many times before, and am here to prevent them from conquering Planet Blackstar. Oh yes, they recognize the threat I pose to their diabolical scheme, and if you will check your scanners you will see they have already dispatched ten ships against me. Power up your weapons and defense systems, a fight is coming!"

Dr. Brackman sneered and ended the transmission. Playing the 'good guy' wasn't something he was used to, and of course, he had never actually dealt with the clans before and simply wanted to sound like he knew wha they were up against. However, letting the Clans and all those defending the Dojo get worn down fighting each other would make it all the more easy for Brackman defeat them all later. He looked upwards at the ceiling,
"AI, activate the defenses and launch some attack craft, however, do not fire unless I give the word..."
On the hull of the Mothership, dozens of panels began to slowly flip over, revealing monstrous dual-barreled energy cannons previously hidden underneath the ship's skin. All rotated to lock their sights on the incoming Clan vessels, warming up for the potential attack. The surface of the ship began to glow, and a faint blood-red could be seen forming around it as the defensive shielding powered up. A giant sliding door opened just a crack on the belly of the vessel, just wide enough for a dozen smaller ships, each maybe 50 feet in length, to lazily emerge from the Mothership's docking bay.

These new craft had no crew, and were autonomous, just like most everything on Brackman's ship. The same red glow encompassed their hulls, each one sporting four much smaller and less potent versions of the Mothership's energy cannons. These ships were not very agile, and were also outfitted with a limited number of smaller beam weapons, capable of tracking and firing at smaller, more nimble fighter-class vessels with pinpoint accuracy. The 'frigates' formed a line in front of the towering Mothership, and waited...

((A little more description on the Clan landing pods, such as armament and size, would be appreciated.))

[Coolpikaaa]

"CSS, as you are no doubt aware, a large alien craft has entered orbit around Blackstar, and I'm not talking about my own. Even now, they have sent landing craft to all corners of the planet and at this very moment are staging an invasion. The vessel trying to dock with you is hostile. Do not listen to whatever they have told you. I've dealt with this species many times before, and am here to prevent them from conquering Planet Blackstar. Oh yes, they recognize the threat I pose to their diabolical scheme, and if you will check your scanners you will see they have already dispatched ten ships against me. Power up your weapons and defense systems, a fight is coming!"

A fight indeed.

"EY KAZ! Get those sheilds up!"

"T'parr, how much time before we can get the weapons ready? This is going to be one doozy of a fight."

Coolpikaaa flicked off his chair-console.The messages were on the way,the whole bridge was now in a whirlwind of activity.The problem was they had no idea who to side with on this one.

-coolpikaaa

[Kazumaru]

Kazumaru hopped into his station's chair. After a few button presses and digital slider movements on the touchscreen, he spoke. "Shields up, weapons online. Good day, Commander."

[Intyalle]

((Ah... catch time. ))
___________________________
~~Tel'Erusva~~
Intyalle saw the soldiers suddenly start aiming at her and split out of her body straight away. Fortunately for me - and all the other APs - Intyalle was the eldest, and had started life by resurrecting lots of people after I went on a killing spree... before any of the APs had bodies, when they were just floating 'spirits'.
"That was close," Intyalle mused, then finished resurrecting Kathcantavaria.

[Swix]

"I am one of them anyway" Brock replied, although he didn't bow back since he found that sort of gesture rather odd "My name is Brock"

The Norn, ex-Borg and heir had to pause and think for a moment about the question though. They certainly didn't act hostile, and it wouldn't be the first time he'd seen people carrying weapons who were just being cautious.

"I'm afraid I don't know of any deposits of those metals off the top of my head, but I'll be quite happy to scan around for some for you. I'll have to go back home though, I can't access the scanners from here" Brock said, then eyed their odd weaponry. "Though I will have to ask you to holster your weapons, I wouldn't want to cause the others to panic. We're not used to having visitors"

[rosebarks]

Lily saw the blasts, ducking one, two, and barely on the third one blast. She had seen the third go past her head, right infront of her eyes. it had had missed by about a foot but only just. Lily could hear the sound of it, even as it passed her. ~That nearly hit me...This guy means business!~ She thought, realizing the severity of this fight, as she backflipped using that as a dodge. She watched Taanookii carefully, "Is that all you got?" She asked him.

Lily was trying to edge the guy on, her hands by her sides as she was now standing. She was trying to figure out how to combat the methods they were using before she would strike them. Her method was observe then strike. So far Taanookii seemed to be more offensive than defensive towards her, and seemed to want her actually dead, something she couldn't afford to take so lightly.

[The Clans]

((As you wish doctor, our scientists have filed a report on our technology. Abidusray, you are mistaken, you are facing humanoid Ieclan soldiers, not arachnid Mechans.))

Clan-Lieutenant 103 inclined his head slightly towards Brock,

"Naturally. We would not wish to cause a panic." He signalled to his men, and they holstered their weapons, but kept them loose enough that they might be able to draw them quickly should the need arise.

From the foliage, the landing-pod's controller burst through,

"Sir! The mothership is under attack!" he cried out, his panic showing in his voice, Lieutenant 103 shook his head slowly,

"No matter. We carry on with out mission." Almost guiltily, he turned back to Brock,
"Please lead us to these scanners, it is of the upmost importance!" His hands concealed behind his back, he slowly signalled to the soldiers behind him, who fingers moved closer to their holsters.

----------

Clan-Lieutenant 122's eye widened angrily, the CSS had engaged it's shields, and just after some unknown communications had occured between the space station and the newcomer alien ship. It could be that the station was arming itself against Brackman's ship, but the Lieutenant knew better than trust chance. He stopped the pod-ship engines, and resumed contact with the CSS,

"Would it be rude to ask why you have raised your shields?"

----------

Clan-Priest 62 spat as Intyalle survived, time to change tactics,

"Spread your fire! Keep firing at them all! Kill them all! Spill their blood!"

----------

Shaaiikliin laughed as Naine's exobody exploded, his screeching laugh was cut short as the shards of metal ripped into his body. He collapsed, his blood dripping out through the plates with a 'drip drip drip'. The Mechan stared at Naine for some time, before whispering,

"Kiill mee..."

----------

The five pod-ships that had been launched at the scientist mothership now cut their engines, bolts of lightning crackled between each of them, their shields, warping the vacuum around them, now came on, and their weapons rotated towards the hostile spacecrafts, but they did nothing.

[Cirrial]

Naine pauses. Well, it did try and kill me... but if I took it alive would it prove a valuable source of information? Does its culture dictate that it defers to one who has bested it in combat? Will it trick me into something if I do or don't kill it? This is quite a dil-

Goldie fires several bursts of ammunition, far more than are probably necessary, directly into the body and face of the wounded Mechan. The air above the intact arm wavers and flickers as heat pours upwards.

[ Morals are overrated. ]

...That was... you could have spared some ammo for the other one, maybe?

[ Not until we know for sure that we've killed the damned thing. ]

Naine pauses and contemplates, twirling his pectoral fins and softly opening and closing his mouth. Let's get over there a little closer. Keep the guns trained on it. Er, gun. We'll see if there's any trickery planned...

[ You do realise that other one is going to target us next, likely? ]

True. Let's wait and see what happens next.

Naine and Goldie both monitor the external sensors and cameras of the exobody with unbroken attention, biding their next move.

[Abidusray]

[Intyalle]

~~Tel'Erusva~~
Bad bad bad bad BAD!
The others were going down faster now, and Intyalle was struggling to keep up. At one point, even I was killed, but was able to hop-scotch to Mist's body, thankfully distant from the battle. Of course, I could have used Minerva, as pretty much everyone generally ignores her, but she was still too close for comfort.
When my body was resurrected, I slid back in - much to Mist's relief, as she found suddenly losing the ability to manipulate air somewhat disconcerting.
Thank god for sending Mist to the Somewhat Bland Tower that Floats!
"Intyalle, how are you holding up?" I called, sending a solid blow with my hanbo towards the head of the soldier I was currently battling with.
"Not good," she called back, finishing her resurection spell on Melanaur. "We've still got Insanity, Kathcantavaria and Agarwala down."

~~Neera~~
Neera frown slightly when her attack with the water was shrugged off without a reaction. Time to try something a little more extreme. The world has no place for bullies.
She imagined a globe around the one who appeared to be leading - at least, the one who kept shouting out orders - and pulled all the air out of the globe.

[rosebarks]

((What about Lily The Clans?))

[Swix]

"So I hear" the strangely coloured Norn said as he began to turn back the way he had come "it's this way"

Brock began to jog back to the communal home, picking up his staff as he did and hiding his frown from the strange creatures. That message certainly sounded genuine at least. Oh well, maybe it was just the fact that they were so different to him and others he was used to that he thought they were acting a bit strange On the other hand, their was native and non-native life here that wasn't exactly very friendly.

'I winder where Grarg went' he thought, keeping an eye out for a dark shadow following them. She might not be able to talk common fluently just yet but that didn't mean she was stupid. The Grendel was quite intelligent and would probably be keeping an eye on them.

[Kazumaru]

((In which I put too much detail into the CSS' main screen. Due to CP's Adventure in Meatspace, I'm taking over the CSS.))

There was an explosion behind Kazumaru. Along with all the other crew members, he spun around to see the flaming wreck that was CP's console. Some times, he wondered why there was C4 under each console...

Two medics scooped up the rodent and hauled him to the infirmary.

"Jack!" Kazumaru said. "Line of succession, who's next up?"

"You, dad." Jack said in his childish tone.

"Ah, glorious. Switch command functions over to my console."

"Yes sir!"

Kazumaru switched out his top hat for a clearly-fake crown, and turned back to his console. With a few key presses, the bridge's main screen was segmented into four sections: Visual battle footage, top-down graphical display of the battle with the CSS at the center, along with the audio-only feed from the Clans ship and Brackman's ship. The feed from Brackman's ship had a crossed out microphone symbol over it, indicating that audio wasn't being sent back to Brackman just yet.

"Precautionary measure." Kazumaru said. "Against the other ship."

The symbol switched screens, and Kazumaru spoke to Brackman. "Shields are up. Weapons are online. We've got half pointed at your ship and the other big one" A lie. The only weapons that had been aimed were aimed at the closest Clans ship. "So unless you want us to turn them all on you... I need a name and a reason we can trust you."